The Time Codex
by Aquila of the Solaris
Summary: He was meant to be forgotten, locked in a cage with two warring archangels for all eternity. He wasn't meant to wake up thirteen


**Title:** The Time Codex  
**Author:** Fallow  
**Chapter Characters:**Adam Milligan, Castiel, Kate Milligan.  
**Summary: **He was meant to be forgotten, locked in a cage with two warring archangels for all eternity. He wasn't meant to wake up thirteen. Too bad the universe hates meant to's.  
**

* * *

**

It wasn't Adam's day.

He woke surprisingly comfortable, with the warmth of a hot sun on his face and the sound of chirping birds. A glance at the alarm. Still early. He curled onto his side, closing his eyes again and prepared to get a bit more sleep. Only something was nagging at him the way his mum did when he was lazy and didn't do his homework. Mum...

Blood splattering the floor...

Screams ripping through the air...

Darkness...

Light...

Human but not with cold eyes...

A man with haunted green eyes...

Bolting upright, Adam tore the curtains apart, hacked the window open and stuck his head out. It was the perfect portrayal of his home town. Bellow him were the same gravel pathways along side the small green, above him clouds rumbled like a storm that was forever ongoing and around him were the same dull monotonous buildings of white and grey. If this was an illusion it was more certainly the most realistic one yet. He pinched himself hard enough to draw blood. Ouch. Okay – that ruled out a dream at least.

Pulling back, Adam sat down. The bed springs creaked. What the hell was going on? This was definitely his mothers apartment, the one they had before they had brought the house.

The room looked more like a tip than a room; this placed him around thirteen or fourteen. Those years when kids shrugged off all and any responsibility and did the most stupid things.

It was only then the thought to check the date or even the newspaper occurred to him. If he was really where he thought he was, then surely everything around him would have to match up with the events of his memories. A squint at the calender hanging on his door revealed his time. January 1st 2003.

The urge to be sick flooded him.

Adam raced to the bathroom. He stopped short of the mirror above a particularity dirty sink; so erased was the original colour that Adam couldn't recall a time when it had once been anything other than the revolting brown.

A gangly, awkward boy – that stage all boys go through as teenagers - looked back with horrified blue eyes stared back. Holy shit. He was thirteen. Fucking thirteen! This was not happening, Adam told himself. This couldn't happen.

Grasping the sink edge, he leant forwards to rest his forehead against the cool glass while taking in long sucking breaths. His heart pounded like he had just run a marathon. It never worked in the movies or tv shows or books. Something always went wrong. What was it they always said on that show with the three sister witches – charming or something? Oh yeah. Future consequences.

"Adam! You up? I'm heading out now!"

He shut his eyes. Mom.

"Y-Yeah! I-I'm up! Have a good a day!"

"Bye Sweetie! And don't spend all day watching television!"

Watch television? Who would watch television when they'd just woken up in the_ past_? A past where he was destined to die rather painfully, twice over he might add and then get trapped in a cage with two bitchy Archangels and a 'woe is me' giant of a half brother? Oh yeah, Adam was going totally going to watch television.

"So it is you who has caused the ripple through this time."

Adam jumped, spinning around only to jerk back with terror as he looked into vaguely familiar blue eyes.

"You're-"

"We have met in the future I take it?"

He blinked. "How-"

"Angels are God's creation. We are in tune with any ripple through time or unnaturalness in the scheme of things." The angel looked him up and down speculatively. "Though I am unsure why the God in the future has caused this event."

Adam almost snorted. "Gee, I don't know. Maybe because a few years from now your buddy Lucifer is going to break free from his cage?"

The angel with his signature cream coloured trench coat paused. "Lucifer? You are sure?"

"Considering Michael decided to jack my body for a vessel and dragged me down into the cage with him, I'd say yeah I'm sure."

"Back into the cage?"

Adam sighed, motioning to the doorway. "Look, can we talk about this elsewhere? It's a little disconcerting to have a conversation over possible future doom in my bathroom, no offence."

An eyebrow raised. "You would choose to put off the destruction of the world for your comfort? I fear I will never understand humans, nor why father created you so."

"Well, be glad." Adam replied smartly, smirking at the quizzical look he was given. "Humanity is just as in the dark about this as you. Now seriously, can we move?"

He brushed past and headed for the kitchen, collapsing in a chair.

"How far ahead are you?"

"About six years, give or take a few. Or longer. Time doesn't exactly pass the same way in hell or the cage for that matter."

"If you are Michael's vessel then you must be of the Winchester line, of Cain and Abel, but the host recognises you only as Adam Milligan."

Adam sighed. "My father is John Winchester biologically but I don't recognise him as such. Not with what matters. Not with my heart." He shrugged. "It's not like you can call a guy that you met maybe seven or eight times your father."

"Yet, you started the apocalypse?"

Adam blinked; what? Oh- "No. My half brother Dean. I'm just the forgotten replacement." He smirked bitterly. "Heck, Sammy gets out of hell. Kind of unfair that Lucifer's vessel gets out. Me? I get dumped in the past. Not exactly my idea of fun."

"Sammy? I was unaware that there was a female Winchester."

"No, I meant Sam Winchester. Humans use nicknames, usually to tease one another. I think Dean called you Cas once in the future but I can't really recall."

"Do you not know your brothers well? You sound as though they are strangers."

"Might as well be," Adam muttered bitterly. "Didn't even know they existed until I died and got brought back. The first time that is... this being the second, I suppose. Not really the way I imagined it to happen though."

Castiel cocked his head. "I see. You know not the reason for your 'return'?"

Adam shifted, thinking back. All he remembered was endless torture for aeons and then a bright light and then ding, year 2003. "Nope. Not a clue."

"That is... problematic." Castiel sighed. "It will not be long before the ripple reaches heaven and they become aware of your existence."

"Oh... So any bright idea?" Adam asked deadpan.

"For now I will have to hide you, until I can come up with a more permanent method to keep you out of their sight." Castiel replied grimly, a frown etched deep into his face.

"Hide me-"

Adam never had the chance to ask his question when two fingers prodded his forehead. He suddenly understood Dean's passionate dislike for it as the world disappeared into black.


End file.
